Tuesday, 18 September 2012

Thank you all for your enthusiasm about my new venture since I announced it last week.
Things are really coming along now and tomorrow I'm quietly launching to friends and family to give them a chance to feedback before I start to publicise it officially.

Did you take a look yet?

Last week I attended an event run by "she says" at the Lighthouse in Brighton as part of the Brighton Digital Festival. It was a networking event for women in the digital and creative industries and consisted of an amazing vegan lunch, half an hour to chat and mingle with the other attendees, then a talk by a very enthusiastic Tracey Allen of Sea PR, who talked about the twists and turns her life has taken and how she found herself as a vital part of the Organisation Team for the London 2012 Olympics.

She had lots of advice to share, reminding us that it's okay to have a "career portfolio", ie that you don't have to stay in the same role your whole life, and if work isn't fun then it's not worth doing.

She also shared the quote from a friend of hers "Nothing great is easy". I will be reminding myself of this frequently over the next few months and years as I build my business. My new adventure has already been and will continue to be a lot of hard work. But it's going to be great.

Sunday, 16 September 2012

I haven't got to the stage of having business cards printed for What you sow just yet but have found myself in a few situations recently where people have asked for a card.

So, inspired by Danni over at Oh Hello Friend, who often blogs about beautiful cards that she's found or made, I decided I had to make some myself until I have some printed.

It was fun designing them and making lots of mess cutting up paper and yarn and experimenting with different colours and styles of washi tape. But I finally came up with something I liked and that I thought was memorable. And in fact, the first lady that I handed one to said it was so pretty that she'd like to post a photo of it on her blog! So it was worth all the effort!

I toyed with the idea of giving them away stuck to seed packets so did a mini survey on twitter to see what my friends thought. It was about half and half for and against the seed packets, but in the end I didn't have time. I'm going to make sure I do it before the next event though, I think it's a really cute idea.

Here are some pics of the process and the finished article. Let me know what you think of them.

Friday, 14 September 2012

I've spent the last few months deep in thought about the direction my life is taking vs the direct I'd like it to take. I won't go into too much detail, but to keep it brief, I have quit my 9 to 5 and decided to go it alone, setting up an online boutique stocking unusual and beautiful accessories for gardeners.

I started gardening seriously when I got my allotment 3 years ago, not having a clue what was I was doing at the beginning and relying on helpful friends and colleagues to prompt me into planting and harvesting things at the right time.

Whenever I've been blue over the last few years, I've headed to the allotment, or to one of Brighton's many community gardens to get my hands dirty and tend to the earth. It has been wonderful.

So whilst assessing my life and working out how to create a manageable, sustainable business, the answer lay in my love of gardening.

There are so many beautiful items available to encourage people to bring more greenery into their lives, but some of them are pretty hard to find. So I have decided to create a hub selling all of these items in one place. Many of the items are from independent designer makers and small companies. And I'll be blogging to accompany the site, waxing lyrical about all sorts of interesting garden projects and inspirational ideas for the things you grow.

Thursday, 19 July 2012

I may have lost the allotment to an attack of invader weeds, but it's the best year ever for wildflowers. Trev tells me that the flowers on Lewes Road are nearly as tall as him and I've been wandering around town taking tons of instagrams to cheer myself up.

Just thought I'd share a few for those of you who don't follow me.

Poppies as far as the eye can see near Jonathan's parents house.

A perfect Sunday walk back from the Race Course with Dan, Jackie and Jonathan.